The Book on the Bookshelf
Author(s): Henry Petroski
A fascinating history of two related common objects - perhaps the greatest technological advances of the last two thousand years- the making and storing of books - from papyrus scrolls to precious medieval codices to the book as we know it, from the great library at Alexandria to monastic cells to the Library of Congress. As writing advanced, and with it broader literacy, the development of the book was seemingly inevitable. And as books became more common, the question of where and how to store them became more pertinent. But how did we come from continuous sheets rolled on spools to the ubiquitous portable item you hold in your hand. And how did books come to be stored and displayed vertically and spine out on shelves? Henry Petroski answers these and virtually any other questions we might have about books as he contemplates the history of the book on the bookshelf with his inimitable subtle analysis and intriguing detail.
General Information
- :
- : Random House
- : 0.282
- : 31 March 2001
- : books
Other Specifications
- : Henry Petroski
- : Paperback
- : 022/.4/09
- : 290
More About The Product
From the author of the highly praised The Pencil and The Evolution of Useful Things comes another captivating history of the seemingly mundane: the book and its storage. Most of us take for granted that our books are vertical on our shelves with the spines facing out, but Henry Petroski, inveterately curious engineer, didn't. As a result, readers are guided along the astonishing evolution from papyrus scrolls boxed at Alexandria to upright books shelved at the Library of Congress. Unimpeachably researched, enviably written, and charmed with anecdotes from Seneca to Samuel Pepys to a nineteenth-century bibliophile who had to climb over his books to get into bed, The Book on the Bookshelf is indispensable for anyone who loves books.
Henry Petroski is the Alexander S.Vesic Professor of Engineering and Professor of History at Duke University, where he also serves as chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
